What's Happening?

Hello Parents,

It was nice seeing many of you at early drop off this morning. We trust you all enjoyed the mid winter break. This short week was an exciting one as Nightingale celebrated the 100th day of the 100th year of our school! Lower School students took part in many exciting activities during our celebratory assembly. Class III students decided to create a word art piece of 100 famous women from the past 100 years! This was based on the fact that 1920 was a very special year not only because Nightingale was founded by Ms. Nightingale and Ms. Bamford, but because women got the right to vote. The students came together as a grade to brainstorm 100 women from the past and present who are important to them. Please find the word art attached here.

The word art project turned out to be a perfect exercise for Class III as the students are about to embark on a powerful women project in social studies. Your daughters will tell you more about this exciting group project in the coming weeks. Beginning next week they will learn more about women’s suffrage and rights. We encourage you to have conversations with your daughters about women’s rights at home.

In English the students are exploring personification through their current project “Object with a Story.” They are bringing to life some moving, intriguing, and inspiring objects, all with wonderful back stories.

The Winthrop readers have wrapped up our study of Turtle in Paradise by producing and recording a radio show, inspired by radio dramas of the depression era. Get a load of these sound effects! Both shows were recorded in one take. Click here for the Winthrop O show. Click here for the Winthrop R show. Next week we will begin Thanhha Lai’s National Book Award winning free verse novel, Inside Out and Back Again next week. In preparation we have briefly discussed the history of colonial Indochina, the Vietnam War, and the culture and geography of present day Vietnam.

The Healy R girls are loving every page turned in The Wild Robot. They designed dream lodges for Brightbill and Roz and continue to work on learning new vocabulary and completing chapter summaries.

Donaldson readers are continuing to work our way through The Jumbies, discussing point of view and motive.

Next Friday, the 28th the Class III students and teachers will travel to BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music) with Mr. Rosen for Teknopolis: an interactive technology exhibition. The students will have a chance to explore multi-sensory installations from today’s leading digital artists. We will return to school in time for our regularly scheduled lunch.

Happy February Parents!

As you may have noticed, our website will be updated bi-weekly going forward. In light of that please note that school is closed on Monday February 17th and Tuesday February 18th for mid winter break.

Your daughters have been spending a lot of time in the classroom on several projects related to the Ryan’s Well Foundation. In addition to sewing beautiful bags for straws, they each had a chance to design and create a new logo and slogan for the foundation. Class III students came up with wonderfully clever tag lines such as “Just One Well”, “Clean Water is Magical”, and “Water is Life”. The students were also paired to make an Adobe Spark video about the Ryan’s Well Foundation and explain their designs and why they care about the foundation. We have a new bulletin board outside of our classroom and their videos will be able to be accessed through QR codes. The girls will also be designing special tags to go on the bags they sewed. Please ask your daughters about this advertising campaign they have been so dedicated to! Date of the sale is TBD!

In English the Donaldson and Winthrop students finished their superhero project. The Slokar students spent two classes crafting Haiku and Cinquain love poems for Valentine’s Day. The students initially found these forms of poetry to be challenging, but they were able to help each other and produce wonderful results.

In math the students continued their study of arrays and open arrays. They also explored factor rainbows and all had the chance to make a factor rainbow for the number 100. Your daughters are seeing that they have the skills to solve complex multiplication problems.

We will celebrate Valentine’s Day next Friday February 14th in the classroom. Students who have made Valentines will be able to pass them out. Your daughters are permitted to wear festive socks and headbands.

This morning Class III was treated to a fantastic presentation about Lunar New Year by classmates Sienna Siegfried, Addie Portnoy, Grace Liu, Caroline Bacquiran and Olvia Lee. The students learned about the year of the rat as well as the history and traditions associated with Lunar New Year. Our classrooms were decorated with beautiful red lanterns and posters. It was wonderful to see your daughters learning from each other and asking thoughtful questions. Xinnian Kuaile!

We wanted to alert you to the fact that there have been several cases of Flu in the class as well as on the Lower School floor and the school as a whole. Let’s nip this epidemic! We have been encouraging your daughters to wash their hands as much as possible and to cover their mouths with the inside of their elbows when they cough or sneeze. Please make sure to alert Nurse Levine if your daughters are under the weather and do not send them back to school until they are a solid 24 hours fever free with no fever reducing medication.

As you saw in Next at Nightingale, last week we had the opportunity to have important conversations and a lower school assembly about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In Class III, we discussed the Civil Rights movement of the mid 20th century and also emphasized the ongoing work in the area of civil rights and social justice movements. We referenced Dr. King’s speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 where he accepted the award on behalf of the movement, but made sure to acknowledge the fight was far from over. Your daughters were engaged and we encourage you to continue these conversations at home.

In reading this week the Slokar students participated in readers’ theater for Tua and the Elephant. The students took great pleasure in taking on the roles of characters and putting their acting skills to work! This kind of exercise is useful for strengthening their public speaking skills. If you have the opportunity to take your daughters out for Thai food I’m sure they would enjoy it. We have been reading about many delicious Thai meals in this book and we all get hungry during reading class!

We have begin a new context for learning unit which will introduce your daughters to multiplication and division with the array. Make sure to ask your daughters about Muffles Truffles, and refer to the math newsletter linked here. As a reminder, we ask that you let your daughters explore this material independently. Thank you for your support in having your daughters continue to work on their multiplication facts. They are seeing that progress comes with consistent practice.

In social studies the students have continued learning about water and the Ryan’s Well Foundation. Thank you for participating in the homework assignment about the use of water in your homes. We collected some interesting data that you can scroll to see at the bottom of this page. Your daughters are very aware that clean water is a privilege that not everyone has and they are eager to help support a foundation that is changing the lives of young girls and women in Africa by providing clean water and sanitation. Ms. Winthrop led the girls in a sewing project this week. The girls are crafting drawstring storage bags that will hold reusable metal or silicone straws. We will be selling these straws and bags in the near future to raise money for Ryan’s Well Foundation’s current project which is a collaborative effort with the Rukungiri Women’s Integrated Development Foundation. This project also brings awareness to the importance of environmental sustainability as it helps us reduce the use of disposable plastics (straws). More information about the fundraiser forthcoming.

Happy New Year! Your daughters have begun the new decade in full force, and we are happy to have them back in the classroom. We’ve had a fun week here at school with two special lower school assemblies. Make sure to ask your daughters about which baseball player they met and about the incredible Chinese juggling master who performed for us on Friday.

We have started a new unit in social studies which the students are passionate about. Have you heard of Ryan's Well? Please find the link to our study of water here.

We've begun FRACTIONS! Please access our math newsletter via this shortcut for more information.

In English, the students have brushed up on identification of and generating parts of speech. They also completed a lesson on similes and metaphors, using a bit of pop culture to guide us (click the link and see if you can count the metaphors and similes).

The Slokar reading students are starting Tua and the Elephant a novel set in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The girls will be learning about Thai culture and food and they will complete a technology project.

Having begun Turtle in Paradise, by Jennifer L. Holm, Winthrop readers are moving from the folklore of the Caribbean and into historical fiction of Key West, Florida. They had a crash course in Great Depression era history and sampled the culture of the 1920's and 1930's. The girls know about the domino effect initiated by the Black Tuesday stock market crash, Panama hats and pomade, the Ford Model A and Easy Street, and Shirley Temple in Hollywoodland.

The Donaldson readers are finishing a collection of their own poems inspired by the poets in Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. We will be having a poetry reading party in class on Monday.

The Healy readers just began the novel, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. It is the first time Miss Healy has taught this book so everyone--including Miss Healy--is super excited! In addition, we continue to work on reading and spelling multisyllabic words. Each week the girls are also becoming experts at answering comprehension questions in writing in addition to group discussions. Our focus is answering questions using evidence from the text to provide proof.

We wish you all a wonderful start to Nightingale’s Centennial Year!

Vacation homework! The students should have brought home these big, thick math packets (linked in case of lost packets). They are expected to complete SIX pages of their choosing (though some intrepid souls may wish to do more). Additionally, they are to practice multiplication facts in order to be ready for some Mad Minutes upon our return to school.

Fact practice is FUN on Arcademics. The students are welcome to sign in with their school accounts from home--challenge them to a game of Grand Prix Multiplication! The more players, the merrier.

Want even more math? Feel free to peruse the math challenge resources here on this very website.

ADDITIONALLY - the students should READ, READ, READ! Please continue the regular practice of reading. We can't wait to learn about what the students have discovered from their reading over vacation!

And finally: Play! Decompress! Relax! Enjoy each other! We all send you our warmest wishes for the break. Until 2020!

December is notoriously busy, and the students have been working hard on all fronts. It’s hard to believe that next week is the last week before winter break. We look forward to seeing you at the Lower School Winter concert this coming Tuesday, December 17th at Brick Church.

In social studies, we have continued our study of the UN. The students have begun their first group research project led by Ms. Westman. They are working in small groups to research one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals using web and print resources from the library. Ask them to explain the “Super 3” research model to you. We have been impressed with their dedication to this project. Next week, we will have our second field trip of the year! We will visit the Nature Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt. The girls will use their newly acquired knowledge about sustainability to make connections and observations about the installations.

The Slokar readers are now in the middle of The Hundred Dresses by Elenor Estes. The girls are enjoying the book and having interesting discussions about friendship and kindness. They are also continuing work on poetry.

Donaldson readers have entered the realm of poetry and are reading Sharon Creech’s novel-in-verse, Love that Dog and investigating many different poems alongside the main character, Jack.

Healy readers are conducting research on sharks on PebbleGo having wrapped up their reading of Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark. The students created their own sharks using Model Magic.

Winthrop readers have read the penultimate chapter of The Jumbies. What a journey this novel has been!

In English, the students have just begun a writing project in which they are using narrative writing skills to create their own story based upon Another by Christian Robinson, a wordless picture book that has been listed by the New York Times as one of the year’s 25 best children’s picture books.

In math, we concluded our unit on measurement and we circled back to multi-digit addition and subtraction in order for the students shore up their skills. The girls have also been working on a variety of challenging multiplication puzzles to help strengthen their recall of multiplication facts. They have been using Arcademics in school to mathematically challenge each other in an arcade game format and can continue practicing with this program at home over break.

This week was our UN trip! Please feel free to visit the Class III bulletin board on the 4th floor corridor to view photographs and artwork inspired by our visit.

From Next at Nightingale: Class III's annual trip to the United Nations was a success. The class was able to visit the Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and pass through the General Assembly where a meeting was being held. They viewed the Norman Rockwell mosaic of "The Golden Rule" and the Otávio Roth prints of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, explored the SDGs through an interactive display, learned about Unicef's School in a Box, and discussed a map of the current peacekeeping missions that the UN is currently involved in. The girls were able to share their knowledge of the workings of the United Nations as they visited the spaces, and the guides (and chaperones!) were impressed by the insight and commentary the students offered. Click here for more photos.

Hi Parents,

First, a screencast from Mr. Rosen on how the students can access their Google drive accounts at home, should they wish to complete any written projects that way.

And now, we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, as next week is only a two day week. We hope you all enjoy the break and time together. It’s hard to believe that December is almost here. On that note, please make sure your daughters are coming to school with hats and mittens for the roof.

We have noticed that your daughters love to craft. As we mentioned last week, Ms. Winthrop generously bought the students colorful string to make friendship bracelets. What began as a recess activity has now turned into a class project with a social mission. After learning about Syrian refugee children in social studies, Class III students decided to make friendship bracelets for them. It’s been wonderful to observe how dedicated the girls are and how this project has united them as a group. The girls are empathetic and compassionate and they are becoming aware of the fact that their feelings matter and they have the power to make a difference in the world.

In math we are working on measurement before we move on to fractions. The students were introduced to time. They learned vocabulary and completed a variety of problems using analog and digital clocks. They also worked on word problems about elapsed time. Toward the end of the week we introduced mass (as opposed to weight) and are now working on understanding what should be measured grams and kilograms. This weekend they will complete a mass scavenger hunt looking for household items that can be measured by g or kg. You are welcome to help them out. The link to this unit’s newsletter is here.

We had two exciting social studies events this week. Firstly Class III was delighted to welcome Ms. Eva Lasky, mother of Gianina Lasky (Class III) to present a social studies lesson on the United Nations this week. In her role at the United Nations, Ms. Lasky works on preparing and negotiating agreements with Member States, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, and academia for their work with the UN. Ms. Lasky and Gianina explained how the United Nations works, what its aims are, and discussed the Sustainable Development Goals. The students had the opportunity to work in small groups to brainstorm what human rights they believed should be included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They brainstormed ideas, separated their ideas into needs and wants, and then shared the needs with the class. It was a valuable lesson for all involved to see what rights the students deemed to be non-negotiable and how few of those are not yet universally guaranteed. This was a wonderful way to begin our unit on the United Nations, Human Rights, and the SDGs: the cornerstone of the Class III social studies curriculum.

Additionally, we discussed what it means to be a refugee. This is in advance of some service projects we do as a grade to bring cheer to resettled refugee children, most often from Syria. We briefly discussed why so many have had to leave their Syrian homes and we learned about the story of a young girl named Malak who is now living in Greece. We will cap these lessons off Thanksgiving week with the news that the Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee have been awarded a MacArthur grant which they are using to bring Sesame Street to refugee children. There is an excellent 60 Minutes piece linked here that might be of interest.

Connecting social studies and language arts, and having wrapped up their opinion pieces, the students spent their English class this week working on written responses to their social studies lesson. The girls were moved by hearing stories of refugee children and they responded by writing in a variety of ways. Some of the students composed poems, others wrote journal entries and letters of action. Their writing is genuine and powerful and their teachers were incredibly moved.

Happy Friday Parents,

It’s been a busy few weeks with parent teacher conferences and school events. We are glad to take a few breaths finally!

We are continuing to help the girls build an inclusive and supportive classroom community. The students love to craft and create so Ms. Winthrop bought friendship bracelet string and finger weaving yarn for them to work together.

In math the students continued to explore ratio tables. We completed our Contexts for Learning unit on the Big Dinner. The students began the unit by helping their teachers figure out how much a 24lb turkey would cost if it was sold for $1.25 per lb. We finished by calculating the cooking time for that same 24 lb turkey at a rate of 15 minutes per pound. The students should all be ready to shop for and prepare your Thanksgiving meals. (You’re welcome.)

In Social Studies the students completed a visual literacy mini-unit on how to “read” photographs. We encourage you to let them show you how they know how to observe and infer from images. This exercise is based upon one that is readily and regularly accessible on the New York Times website: What’s Going on in this Picture? We have now moved on to the story of the forming of the United Nations and an overview of how it works and what it hopes to achieve.

In English the students were introduced to opinion writing. They explored various topics such as: should there be winners and losers in sports and what is the most important subject for kids to study in school. They used the OREO format to form a paragraph by providing reasons and examples for why they hold their opinion.

The Donaldson readers are continuing to read about Tua’s journey through Chang Mai in Tua and the Elephant. We have discussed Buddhist temples and elephant sanctuaries.

The Healy girls are reading Shark Lady: The Adventures of Eugenie Clark by Ann McGovern. They are learning to write their own thick and thin question, which we are answering in class. They are excited to decide upon a final project next week. Stay tuned!

The Winthrop readers are enjoying the eerie mysteries of The Jumbies. We recently explored traits of the various characters we have encountered, identifying specific textual evidence to support the traits we assign them. One of the groups had the opportunity to learn one of Ms. Winthrop’s favorite word games, Quiddler. Highly recommended for family game night!

This week the Slokar readers have been working on composing their own pet poems inspired by Valerie Worth’s poem Dog. It’s been wonderful to observe how creative they are. They students are becoming aware of how writing a poem is different from other forms of writing. They are also editing their own poems by going back to reconsider word choices. The students are most excited about sharing their work with one another.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Extra, Extra read all about it in the Friendship Class(III)ifieds!

This week the students wrote anonymous friendship ads in response to a SEL (social emotional learning) lesson about what constitutes a good, healthy and supportive friend. Please make sure to check them out! As we work to build our classroom community we hope that exercises like these will encourage the girls to reach out to new classmates and feel confident about their unique qualities. They all have so much to offer one another.

As a reminder, there is no school tomorrow November 1st for students for parent teacher conferences. We look forward to welcoming parents into the classroom on Tuesday, November 5th for Parent Visiting Day.

In reading, the Slokar students finished Dear Mr. Henshaw. The girls were tasked with designing their own covers for their final project. Next, we will be working on a book of poetry. We look forward to exploring this special book with parents on Tuesday. The Donaldson students have been reading Tua and the Elephant, continuing our discussions on personification and similes. Miss Healy’s reading girls finished up The Hundred Dresses project by writing a letter from Maddie to the main character, Wanda Petronski. Next week, the students will take a deep dive into our first biography. It is about a famous shark diver and scientist entitled Shark Lady: The Adventures of Eugenie Clark by Ann McGovern. Winthrop readers have started The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste. We are discussing representation in literature and traditional fairytales and point of view. The girls learned about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person narration and explored the the roots and meaning of the word omniscient as it relates to 3rd person narration.

In math, the students were introduced to ratio tables in the context of a pet store. Many of the students find this method to be exciting. They are putting their multiplication skills to good use. We will explore many kinds of ratio tables. Ask your daughters to teach you about it and please refer to the corresponding math newsletter linked here and for our related upcoming Contexts for Learning unit linked here.

In social studies we welcomed our incredible librarian Ms. Westman who introduced the students to the book When Aidan Became a Brother in preparation for Kyle Lukoff’s author visit. Class III girls also designed global statistic posters for the updated 2016 global village values based upon If The World Were a Village. The posters are on display for you to see outside of the Class III homeroom.

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Halloween!

Good Afternoon Parents,

We’ve had another exciting week in Class III. It’s hard to believe that November is approaching. Please note that there is no school for students next Friday, November 1st as have our first day of parent teacher conferences (the students have a full day to recover from their Halloween candy). We look forward to meeting with all of you in the coming weeks.

Healy readers finished the The Hundred Dresses by Elanor Estes. The group enjoyed reading the novel and discussing the themes of friendship, teasing, and forgiveness. They have become experts at restating the question in their written answers and providing evidence from the text to support their answers. For their final project, the group decided to design a dress and a pant suit. Each student created a stunning watercolor design which will be on display in Room 403.

The Donaldson readers are approaching Tua and the Elephant with an eye towards appreciating the rich figures of speech the author employs. This week they learned about personification and why an author might use it.

The Slokar readers have continued their study of Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. The girls are enjoying in depth conversations about the relationships between characters in the novel. It’s a pleasure to hear them converse with one another and observe their hard work in their journals.

Winthrop readers have designed their own culminating projects for Tua and the Elephant. Ideas range from short films to screenplays to Scratch programmed scenes to themed board games to elephant rights activism and more! Next week the groups will begin to read a novel by the Trinidadian author Tracey Baptiste called The Jumbies. A fitting tale to begin on the week of Halloween!

In social studies, we read If The World Were a Village by David J. Smith with Ms. Westman. The girls participated in a fascinating discussion about what the demographics of the world look like if we shrink the population of the world to a more manageable 100 people. The students were surprised by many of the statistics and were able to place themselves in the global village by answering questions about things like access to clean water, education, and shelter. It is worth noting that these statistics have been updated since the original publication of the book reflecting some positive change in the makeup of our global village. We have posted a short film version of the book in the Social Studies section of this website.

In English, one skill the girls are exploring is how to “explode” a small moment with sensory details, descriptive language, and figures of speech. We also introduced the students to something called Writing Sprints. Sprints entail prompts such as describe a blizzard in August or make a list of things that open a timer set for several minutes. We ask the students to keep their pencils to the paper and write down whatever comes to their minds. The girls enjoyed sharing some of their work with their classmates.

In math, your daughters are continuing to build their multiplication skills. The girls have been using arrays to determine groups of windows, mailboxes, fruit and vegetables. We have seen improvement with their facts in their mad minutes so their hard work is paying off. At this point the girls can “see” multiplication in many ways: skip counting, repeated addition, jumps on the open number line, loops and groups, and arrays.

Hi everybody! So much to share today!

First of all what a genuine pleasure it was to see so many of you last night at Lower School Curriculum Night. We thank you for your interest in what your children are learning and we look forward to our partnership with you this year. We received some interesting questions and have attempted to provide further information and resources to help answer them in more detail at the end of this blog entry.

This week Class III was privileged to meet with two amateur soccer teams who were in town to participate in the Global Goals Cup, hosted in conjunction with the UN General Assembly. The teams were from Saudi Arabia and India. Some of the more interesting points in our discussion included how you might use a sports analogy to explain inequality. The girls came up with some interesting ideas: Inequality is like a soccer game where one team shoots into a big goal and the other into a small goal; inequality is where one team has more players than the other, more time to practice than the other, or access to better fields and equipment than the other. A message that was passed along by the Saudi and Indian teams, when the girls took part in a relay-race soccer training activity, was to understand that even if one team wins you don't stop. You finish your task.

We have started our first multi-paragraph composition today. Ask the girls for the subject matter and if they have any questions for you about things they could add!

The girls have used their Chromebooks in several ways this week - they started IXL in math class. They are learning how to use Google Drive. In computer science they are designing math games.

Answers to Curriculum night FAQ's:

Here is a link to a list of resources compiled by Ms. Westman and Ms. Jaffe:

Sexuality Education in Lower School: Before and Beyond the Birds and the Bees

Regarding Graphic Novels:

Some great articles recommended by Ms. Westman:

• "How Comics Helped My Kids Love Reading" from Common Sense Media
• "Why Graphic Novels Belong in All of Our Libraries" by Pernille Ripp (of the GRA!)
• "Raising a Reader! How Comic Books and Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love to Read" from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
• Author Jared Krosoczka on the importance of Graphic Novels (great video!)
• "Why Graphic Novels are Storytelling Quicksand for Reluctant Readers (In a Good Way)" from Brightly
• "Annual Reminder that Graphic Novels are 'Real' Reading" from Book Riot

Great key points from the final article:

• "Often times, graphic novels contain higher level vocabulary words than print-only books for readers in the same age range, and are great for introducing children to new words.
• Graphic novels are great for visual learners. They force readers to actively engage with the text to decipher the interplay between text and images and to decode the differences in text format that signal it as narration or dialogue. Readers must interpret facial expressions of characters and body language instead of reading descriptions in the text that explain their moods and tone.
• Graphic novels offer the opportunity to learn important reading skills, like inference. “Reading between the lines” of a text is often a tricky task, but readers who have experience with interpreting a story based on texts and images are actively developing this important skill.
• Modern literacy means being fluent in a range of mediums, including the interpretation of images. Graphic novels prepare readers to comprehend a range of multimedia messages, which increasingly dominate our culture.
• Graphic novels are also a great resource for children interested in art and design. Aspiring artists are exposed to the wide range of styles of the illustrations in graphic novels. Layout and formatting of graphic novels can teach teens good design skills and how the way the story is presented is integral to a reader’s understanding and enjoyment of it."

This weekend the girls will bring home their Class III homework binders. Ask them to explain to you the morning routine and how they copy down each night's assignments.

During PE this week, the class was introduced to a new piece of equipment in the D/G. They will be excited to tell you all about it.

Please check out the Social Studies page on this website (under Academic Resources) to see the incredible time lapse video of the earth that we watched in class.

Finally, be sure you ask your daughters about the Global Read Aloud. We have started reading our novel, Front Desk, and look forward to connecting with students around the country and world soon!

It has been great to see how eager to learn our new group is!

We have had a busy but productive start to the 2019-2020 school year. It has been great fun coming to know your girls, and we look forward to watching them grow and learn this year. This week marked the start of Nightingale’s Centennial year, and today we celebrated our centennial convocation with the unveiling of the official centennial logo.

This week, please ask your daughters about Ms. Westman’s introduction to the new library format, about convocation, about logo cookies, and about Chromebooks. Here are a few photos from the past several days. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! - Ms. S and Ms. W